I have been listening to various podcasts and documentaries about sustainable gardening, permaculture, the environment, and most alarming, the decreasing numbers of thousands of animal and plant species. I was recently asked by someone if I was “big on environmental conservation.”
My reply was, “Yes!” “It is my passion.”
A speaker in one of the talks I listened to said, “We need to fall in love with the world.”
This was such a beautiful way of saying that we need to care.
We have all been in love at one time or another. I doubt that there is a human being alive who has not felt this emotion. We fall in love with someone we are attracted to. We may fall in love with our newborn baby, or a puppy. There are an infinite number of people and things with which we can fall in love. When we truly love someone or something, it becomes sacred to us. We care for it, protect it, and treat it with reverence. We would not dream of harming it. The problem is that most people keep love to themselves, as though it is something to be coveted, rather than shared. They do not understand that love is actually the power that animates life in us and in everything.
I am astounded at the disregard so many people show for the precious things in our lives. They withhold love from themselves and from others. Their contempt can be seen in the disrespect they show for the very world that gives them life.
When we realize that we are one with all life, that we are part of Nature and not separate from her, we cannot help but love life itself. Our planet has given our life to us – for free. She asks nothing in return, yet we have exploited and taken from her. We cannot heal our planet when we continue to harbor hatred in our hearts. We must first fall in love. We must fall in love with Earth, with her water, air, soil, and sun, and all of her beings with whom we share her – our common mother.
